Contents

Pre-release

The pre-release screenshot from Dengeki Online

Early sprites for Bulbasaur and Charmander were seen in a pre-release screenshot published by Dengeki Online.[1]

Early Oak

A different sprite for Professor Oak that would have been used in the New Game tutorial of the games was seen in a Japanese commercial. This commercial also shows the color-based text distinction for male and female NPCs that the localizations would adopt, which was not used in the Japanese versions (instead, they use two fonts to make the distinction).

Post-release

Locations

Sevii Isles

More routes were planned for the Sevii Islands. However, each one of these routes that are still programmed in on Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen is called Sevii Isle (Japanese: ななしま Nanashima), suggesting that they are islands instead of routes. Their Japanese name is shared with that of the Sevii Islands, with the only difference being that the Sevii Isles use hiragana as opposed to the Sevii Islands' usage of katakana.

Counting from the "first" route in the Sevii Islands, Kindle Road, and going down numbers the Sevii Island routes into the same order reflected by the Sevii Isles, suggesting that the routes of the Sevii Islands were originally intended to be numbered in this way.

Sevii Isles 6 and 7 have map data consisting of only a single tile. Sevii Isle 6 has a tile that can be surfed on, while Sevii Isle 7 has only a tile cannot be walked or surfed on. Sevii Isles 8 and 9 have fully programmed map data, implying that they were scrapped very late during development. The music theme that plays on all four is ナナシマ Sevii Islands if the player enters them by land.

No wild Pokémon are programmed into these areas by default. No index pointers lead to them by default either; on Sevii Isle 8, the central island on the route has what one would assume to have been cave entrances changed into the side of a rock.

Sevii Isles 22, 23, and 24 have their location name data placed between the Tanoby Ruins and Navel Rock. If a map is given the header of Sevii Isle 22, 23, or 24, the player's location will display as if they were near the Tanoby Ruins. Additionally, the unused maps with pointers $0033560C, $00336170, and $00337814 in the English version ($0033560C, $00336170, and $00337814 in the Japanese version) are stored immediately after the Tanoby Ruins as well, which may mean that those maps were originally intended for use as Sevii Isles 22, 23, and 24.

Items

Key Items exclusive to Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (and also Pokémon Emerald) are found within the internal data, complete with item sprites and Bag descriptions that differ from those of Ruby and Sapphire, due to their different layout and menu setup, which allows less space for the descriptions. These items are only obtainable by cheating or modification of the saved game data. For the most part, they have no use, though the Mach Bike and Acro Bike will act the same as the normal Bicycle obtainable in FireRed and LeafGreen with the exception of not being recognized by the games for entering Cycling Road.

HM08, unobtainable except by cheating and containing Dive like in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, can be taught and deleted freely, making its use almost the same as a normal TM.

Music

Audio track with index number 0x0119 in the ROM plays an unused version of Pokémon Healed which is a chiptune-like rearrangement of the regular theme used by the games, and that also resembles the original theme from Pokémon Red and Green. This may hint at a planned earlier implementation of a feature like GB Sounds.